Editing Thetis (section)

== As a goddess ==
Most extant material about Thetis concerns her role as mother of [[Achilles]], but there is some evidence that she was more central to the religious beliefs and practices of [[Archaic Greece]] in her role as a sea-goddess. The pre-modern etymology of her name, from ''tithemi'' (τίθημι), "to set up, establish", suggests a perception among [[Classical Greece|Classical Greeks]] of an early [[polis|political]] role. [[Walter Burkert]]<ref>Burkert, ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'', 1993, pp 92-93.</ref> considers her name a transformed doublet of [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]].

After Achilles's death, Thetis does not need to appeal to Zeus for immortality for her son, as the two have an established rapport (due to Thetis helping him in a dispute with three other Olympians) and snatches him away to the [[Snake Island (Ukraine)|White Island]] ''Leuke'' in the [[Black Sea]], an alternate [[Elysium]],<ref>[[Erwin Rohde]] calls the isle of Leuke a ''[[Elysium|sonderelysion]]'' in ''Psyche: Seelen Unsterblickkeitsglaube der Grieche'' (1898) 3:371, noted by Slatkin 1986:4note.</ref> where he has transcended death, and where an Achilles [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] lingered into historical times.